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Basal gravel and sand mantling the bedrock floors of buried valleys throughout the Canadian Interior Plains, and conformably overlying proglacial lacustrine sediment, comprise the Empress Group. While previously conceptualized as stratigraphically equivalent deposits of preglacial rivers prior to the first and most extensive continental and montane glaciations, subsequent stratigraphic studies indicated that buried valley basal gravel must have been deposited between, or during, progressively more extensive continental glaciations and could not be stratigraphically equivalent throughout the buried valley network. However, in the general absence of formation-rank stratigraphic description of basal gravel units that might better inform the geologic history of the deposits, most workers simply consider Empress Group sediments time-transgressive. In this paper, we examine basal gravel at provincial and regional scales to understand its genesis and geologic history. At the provincial scale, we map basal gravel in three dimensions using a novel machine learning approach. At the regional scale, we formally define basal gravel formations at either end of the largest buried valley system in Alberta, which informs its glacial history and physiographic development and shows the importance of formation-rank stratigraphic description. Our results indicate that the buried valley network across Alberta is palimpsest in genesis and basal gravel units within it are chronostratigraphically intercalated between tills. We advocate that the Empress Group definition be extended across Alberta with modifications to improve its clarity and utility, and formally define the Old Fort, Unchaga, Ipiatik, and Winefred formations as part of the Empress Group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Dinosaur skeletal material from the mid-Cretaceous of Canada is rare; however, the Cenomanian-aged Dunvegan Formation of northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta is rich with ichnofossils attributed to nodosaurid ankylosaurs. A long bone (Hudson's Hope Museum specimen HH 2017.010.002) collected in 1993 from the Murray River of northeastern British Columbia is identified here as an ankylosaur femur. Femoral measurements of the bone plotted against femoral measurements of major dinosaur clades, combined with observations on femoral features, indicate that the bone belongs to an ankylosaur. The specimen is too damaged to assign to Nodosauridae or Ankylosauridae. HH 2017.010.002 represents the first limb bone material recovered from the Dunvegan Formation; previous ankylosaur material described from the Dunvegan Formation includes associated vertebrae and ribs from British Columbia and osteoderms from Alberta, as well as the presumed nodosaurid footprints Tetrapodosaurus borealis Sternberg, 1932. The Cenomanian is a time of great ecological change in North America, including the possible extirpation of ankylosaurid ankylosaurs. Fossils from the Dunvegan Formation can thus yield important insight into the responses of fauna to this major transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 100 m thick stratigraphic section exposed at Dinosaur Provincial Park (DPP; southern Alberta) contains bentonites that have been used for more than 30 years to date DPP's rocks and fossils using the K–Ar decay scheme. Limited reproducibility among different vintages of K–Ar and 40Ar/39Ar ages inhibited the development of a high-resolution chronostratigraphy. Here, we employ and further test a recently completed U–Pb geochronology and associated age-stratigraphy model to update temporal constraints on the Park's bentonites, formational contacts, and other markers. In turn, we document rock accumulation rates and calibrate ages and durations of informal megaherbivore dinosaur assemblage zones and other biozones. Weighted mean 206 Pb/238 U ages from five bentonites range from 76.718 ± 0.020 to 74.289 ± 0.014 Ma (2σ internal uncertainties) through an interval of 88.75 m, indicating a duration of ∼2.43 Myr and an overall rock accumulation rate of 3.65 ± 0.04 cm/ka. An increase in rate above the Oldman–Dinosaur Park formational contact conforms to a regionally expressed pattern of increased accommodation at ∼76.3 Ma across Alberta and Montana. Palynological biozone data suggest a condensed section/hiatus in the uppermost portion of the Oldman Formation. Dinosaur assemblage zones exhibit durations of ∼700–600 kyr and are significantly shorter than those in the overlying Horseshoe Canyon Formation. A decreased rate in dinosaur assemblage turnovers in the last eight million years of the Mesozoic in western Canada may be explained by withdrawal of the Western Interior Seaway and the expansion of ecologically homogenous lowlands in its wake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)